Great Irish Wives: Remarkable Lives from History

By: Pierce, Nicola

Book Overview

An award-winning history that reveals the vital, overlooked roles of the wives behind Ireland's most famous men.

WINNER History Book of the Year, An Post Irish Book Awards.

Throughout history, the stories of women's lives and work have been overshadowed by those of men.

Wives, especially, disappear, unacknowledged as patrons and champions of their husband's work, as collaborators, muses, carers and managers of the family domain.

Great Irish Wives shines a spotlight on ten such wives: Matilda Tone, Mary O'Connell, Constance Wilde, Charlotte Shaw, Emily Shackleton, Annette Carson, Sin ad de Valera, Margaret Clarke, George Yeats and Beatrice Behan.

The men in this book are household names, from Wolfe Tone and Daniel O'Connell to Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan, and they all have one thing in common: they married women who enabled them to pursue their dreams, even if that meant courting death or outrage. Nicola Pierce tells the stories of these truly remarkable women.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1788494776
• ISBN13: 9781788494779
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: O'Brien Press
• Length: 288 Pages